Top seed Novak Djokovic launched his Shanghai Open title defence in fine style, breezing past Spain’s Marcel Granollers 6-2 6-0 yesterday.

Later Roger Federer, playing his first singles match since a fourth-round exit at the US Open, made a brisk return to winning ways, beating Andreas Seppi 6-4 6-3.

Djokovic, who lost his world number one ranking to Rafa Nadal on Monday, needed treatment on his right foot during the second set of his match but it did not stop him from breaking his opponent three times to win at a canter.

“There’s several tournaments left for me, this included, where I will try to go as far as I can... eventually have an opportunity to get back to No. 1 (but) it doesn’t depend only on me, it depends on Nadal,” said the Serb, who beat Nadal on Sunday in the China Open for his fourth title of the year.

Federer, who is drawn to meet Djokovic in the quarter-finals, looked rusty at the start conceding a break in the fifth game against Seppi.

But the Swiss, who is trying to garner enough points to book his place for next month’s ATP World finale in London, got the break back in the next game to level the match at 3-3 and broke the Italian’s serve once more to take out the first set.

The second set was far more comfortable for the 17-times grand slam winner as he held on to an early break without facing any problems on his serve.

Other result: Nadal bt Dolgopolov 6-3 6-2.